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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Shirt to PJ dress

I'm really getting into refashioning clothes that use to work and fit into other pieces of clothing to get more wear out of them. Mackenzie recently went through all her clothes and handed off the ones that she's outgrown. This pretty white shirt was one of them. No, it's not very Mackenzie like. I mean what would a wanna be Gothic girl want with a white shirt with a ruffle on it? I made her wear it for pictures one year. The pictures turned out great but sadly I don't think Mackenzie ever wore the shirt again. The fabric is so soft and I thought it would make a great play dress or even PJ's for Evan Grace. So I tossed it onto my cutting mat and dove in.

I played around with how I could use the pretty collar of the shirt and knew I wanted to do something kinda like this, but without the pleat down the side of the shirt.

I sliced horizontally through the shirt about 4 inches down from the collar. Opened up the left side seam right under the sleeve and folded over the ruffle so that it lays across the body. I stitched the seam closed again and shortened the sleeves so they fit her small arms better. Then I stitched the lower half of the shirt back onto the new shirt front all the way around. I picked up some really cute red fabric with tiny white dots on it that just screamed Evan Grace's name. I think I paid a dollar for a yard. I cut 6 long 3'' wide strips of the red fabric. 2 of the strips became the ruffle, 3 became the smashed roses on the skirt and the other one became the tie around the somewhat empire waist.

The smashed roses were an after thought when I noticed I had knicked about 1/4 inch hole. I wanted to try this technique for awhile anyway but didn't have a worthy excuse to try it out on my other projects. Hence the odd placement for this nightgown.

You know what happened next. Evan Grace spent the entire time I was working on this asking if it was done yet and could she wear it the 'whole' night. As soon as it was finished she threw it on in record time and headed for the hallway closets for pictures. I only wanted one good picture of the dress to show off my creativity. Just one.

Here's a recap of my side of the conversation with Ms. Evan Grace.

"Just stand straight and tall and look at the camera. I just need one good picture and you can go play in your new nightgown ok?"

"Don't you think that's a little to high for a princess to hold her dress up? Yes, I know you're trying to curtsy but remember, modest is hottest."

"No you can't run at the camera either...well because I'm not going to be able to get a picture of the entire dress if you run. Lets try standing straight and tall for 5 seconds."

"Evan....what are.....is that standing up straight and tall? Honey, what's going on with your shoulder?"

"Sure we can take a break so you can go put on some lip gloss. Oh you want to take off the tie and use it as a headband? Ok, sure. Now we're going to get one good picture right?"